Shame On Best Buy

[Judge]

So they offset the alleged drop in prices by only selling Nvidia RTX 30 series cards with a $199 charge for their Totaltech membership. Apparently even some of the major retailers are now in the scalping business. Shame on them.

Best Buy Locks Nvidia RTX GPUs Behind Obscene $200 Paywall

 

[Misery]

It’s been a long, LONG time since Best Buy was anything other than shameful, really.

It was never exactly a great line of stores, but still.

Which goes for most major retailers, honestly.

 

[Judge]

It’s been a long, LONG time since Best Buy was anything other than shameful, really.

It was never exactly a great line of stores, but still.

Which goes for most major retailers, honestly.

I seldom venture to Best Buy stores myself. Same reason I stopped my pilgrimages to the late Fry's Electronics stores. If they're drowning from competing with Amazon, maybe these are Best Buy's death throes. Incidentally, did anyone catch Steve Burke's hassle with Newegg? Really ugly...

Treating customers like crap may be par for the course now. But when your customer does YouTube reviews with a large audience following, it just might cost retailers who so mishandle RMA issues. This is really bad.

"When it rains, it pours."

 

[Misery]

Honestly I miss Fry’s.

I dont know how their other locations were, but the one that was near here was *excellent*. Best store. It was what the local Best Buy (which sucks) should be.

And then it collapsed. Feh.

 

[Judge]

Honestly I miss Fry’s.

I dont know how their other locations were, but the one that was near here was *excellent*. Best store. It was what the local Best Buy (which sucks) should be.

And then it collapsed. Feh.

Oh hell, they were like Disneyland when I was going to Fry's decades ago. Fremont, Sunnyvale, Rocklin, Concord, etc.. I still recall how elated I was when I found out they were building one right across town when I lived in the Bay Area. Instead of an hour to Fremont, it was like ten minutes to Concord.

But like other brick and mortar retailers, their demise was likely inevitable, hastened by Internet shopping. I simply learned to do without Frys when I moved to Nevada. Last time I was in one was in Las Vegas in 2009.

How Best Buy continues to hang on is anyone's guess.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I mostly use Best Buy as a last resort if I’m looking for something very specific and every other store doesn’t have it or are sold out. It is useful for me to get certain Lego Mario and Harry Potter sets that I really wanted but that isn’t too often "

 

[Nervous Rex]

It’s been a long, LONG time since Best Buy was anything other than shameful, really.

It was never exactly a great line of stores, but still.

Which goes for most major retailers, honestly.

I've read so many stories from former Best Buy employees about how badly they are treated and how much pressure they are all under to sell. It makes me feel guilty for even going in there, so I try to avoid it.

 

[Judge]

I've read so many stories from former Best Buy employees about how badly they are treated and how much pressure they are all under to sell. It makes me feel guilty for even going in there, so I try to avoid it.

It's been some time since I was in a Best Buy store. I had forgotten how you had to run through a gauntlet of employees who ask one after another if they can help you.

Though I also recall the "Good Guys" stores with employees all on commission. Though their stock of electronics was pretty good, but I hated having to deal with so many people I didn't want help from. Kind of like walking onto a used car lot.

 

[Nervous Rex]

It's been some time since I was in a Best Buy store. I had forgotten how you had to run through a gauntlet of employees who ask one after another if they can help you.

Though I also recall the "Good Guys" stores with employees all on commission. Though their stock of electronics was pretty good, but I hated having to deal with so many people I didn't want help from. Kind of like walking onto a used car lot.

The last time I went into Best Buy, I took a roundabout route to the aisle I wanted to go to, just so I could avoid employees.

Most of the time when I am shopping, I just want to walk in, grab the thing I need, pay at the register and walk out. I deliberately try to adapt a "hyper-focused" look so salespeople won't approach me. It also helps that I'm 6'5" and walking fast - I imagine they don't want to get run over.

 

[Misery]

I've read so many stories from former Best Buy employees about how badly they are treated and how much pressure they are all under to sell. It makes me feel guilty for even going in there, so I try to avoid it.

Oh yeah, a lot of these places do this.

GameStop is another good example… one of the scummiest places you could enter into right now. Very shady business and they dont exactly value their employees very much. There are a bazillion horror stories about that place, and for very good reason. They’re also infamous for doing the “time card trick” when they want to get rid of someone but have no actual good reason for it. Basically they go “well you signed in one second too early/late so that’s TIME CARD FRAUD guess what you’re fired” and nobody can really do anything about it.

But it’s not even just employee mistreatment: It’s what they want their employees to participate in. What’s that? You didnt SCAM ENOUGH CUSTOMERS this month? Well hey YOU’RE FIRED.

And yeah, “scam” is the right word for the crap they want their poor workers to do. Never, ever, EVER accept an “offer” from any worker in one if you ever go into a GameStop store. Just… just dont. Just say “no thanks” when asked anything during checkout.

Oh, and another thing: Those “brand new sealed” copies of games in there actually aren’t. Believe me, they’ve been opened and yes, the disc has been touched. Source: I worked there before and had to operate the shrink-wrap machine, and opening the cases and whatnot was part of that process. And that was back when it was still EB Games and hadn’t entered Absolute Suckage mode yet. I imagine it’s way, way worse now.

And that’s not all. I could go on… and on… and on… and on… for many pages about all the shady crap this company pulls. But others have already done that better than I could.

And that’s JUST GameStop. I’m gonna take a wild guess and say a place like Best Buy has it’s own List of Scammy Junk.

 

[Magna]

From a sensory perspective, I've always hated Best Buy stores. The heinous yellow/blue color combo, the way the stores are laid out, the East German-like checkpoint. Not for me.

 

[Aspychata]

From a sensory perspective, I've always hated Best Buy stores. The heinous yellow/blue color combo, the way the stores are laid out, the East German-like checkpoint. Not for me.

With you there l never liked the layout either. The aisle running thru at the cashier stand was haphazard.

 

[Streetwise]

So they offset the alleged drop in prices by only selling Nvidia RTX 30 series cards with a $199 charge for their Totaltech membership. Apparently even some of the major retailers are now in the scalping business. Shame on them.

Best Buy Locks Nvidia RTX GPUs Behind Obscene $200 Paywall

Price goudging in the UK was for ppe only didn't shock me completely as I've holidayed in countries which are more expensive than England,but its still disgusting considering employees of the NHS had to rely on members of UK society ,to make them scrubs and face masks, and give them hand sanitiser ,after they'd risked !,losing their only job ,by telling the media !,they had none at all.